dinner at two urban licks
As I mentioned before leaving for RWA, Mary-Theresa Hussey, the Executive Editor of Silhouette Books, called & invited me to have dinner with her at the conference, since my own editor wasn't attending this year. So Thursday night, I met her & two other Harlequin/Silhouette authors--Tessa Radley (Desire) & Judy Fitzwater (Bombshell)--in the hotel lobby.Other than the fact that we would be eating somewhere, I really didn't know what the plans were for the evening. We ended up taking a taxi to a restaurant a few minutes away from the conference hotel called Two Urban Licks. Interesting name, huh? But then, it was an interesting place. The music was loud, but the inside was great, sort of like a rehabilitated warehouse, with terrific artwork on the walls. The menu offered a lot of unusual, but tasty dishes, too. I ended up having a pomegranate mojito (yummy) & the pork dish with a side order of the most delicious macaroni & cheese I've ever tasted. *g* Everyone else's orders looked good, too--they got steak, scallops, & mussels. Even though my meal was great, I still coveted at least a taste of everything else at the table. :-)
And Matrice was terrific about answering all our questions & filling us in on some of the things going on at Harlequin right now. We pretty much ganged up on her & picked her brains as thoroughly as we were cleaning our plates. *vbg* Thankfully, she didn't seem to mind.
I didn't learn anything terribly exciting from the conversation, mostly just the reinforcement of some things I already knew. We talked about the different lines, editor/author relationships, & she gave us a little more background on the guideline changes for Desire, reiterating what my editor had already told me they're looking for these days. The line is also undergoing some cover art changes, & I guess the biggest ones will go into effect at the beginning of 2007. I'm not sure what they'll be, though. Will there be a complete overhaul to the entire look of the line, or just some tweaks? I don't know! But BLACKMAILED INTO BED is a February 2007 release, so I guess I'll be finding out. :-)
Since Judy is a Bombshell author, Matrice also talked a little about that line. I guess it's not doing quite as well as they'd hoped, because while the storylines are kick-butt (pun intended :-)), the fact that they're not romances & don't have that guaranteed happily-ever-after ending seems to be making an impact on the romance & category readers who want that sort of thing. Though it's not a line I read very often, I have read a few of the Bombshell titles & enjoyed them well enough, but I have to admit that I'm one of those who like romances best of all & really do want the love story/HEA. If I remember correctly, they're re-evaluating certain aspects of the line to see what they can do to make it more appealing to a broader spectrum of readers.
After dinner, we took another taxi back to the hotel...it took a while for the cab to show up, though, & we ended up standing outside the restaurant in the rather intense heat & humidity waiting for it. But we survived! LOL And as soon as we got back to the hotel, Matrice & I headed for the National Readers' Choice Awards reception. Unfortunately, we were running a bit late, & by the time we got there, the ceremony was over. Too bad; I attended last year & it was really nice. Plus, this year I was actually up for one of the awards. But I didn't win, so I guess it didn't matter if I was there or not. In fact, maybe it was better that I missed it. LOL
